Brocade talks up LAN prospects

Brocade is putting the finishing touches to its unified channel programme following the
acquisition of Foundry, MicroScope has learned, and a key focus will be on making Local Area
Networking (LAN) resale a more attractive proposition.

Brocade's newly-appointed worldwide channel vice president, Barbara Spicek, said the central
tenet of the new programme was to focus on making sure LAN dealers can remain profitable.

"The world of LAN is unattractive to partners from a margin perspective," she said. "In the LAN
space the ability to differentiate has been blurred, so we want to bring a more value-based
partnership to the table. I believe this is absolutely possible."

Partners coming on board will be required to meet the usual revenue and certification criteria,
but will also have to demonstrate extra commitment through defined business plans and completion of
a customer satisfaction 'scorecard'.

"Partners approve of that [scorecards], as so many LAN resellers say they are only getting
measured by revenues," said Spicek.

According to Spicek all the components of the programme, which was revealed to dealers at the
vendor's recent partner summit in Nice, are already in place, and the programme will be formally
launched in May pending some outstanding back office integration between the two businesses.

It is understood the finalised programme will have three tiers, Elite, Premier and Select, and
will include perks such as uniform marketing development funds across the board, and free
certification training for top level resellers.

Value-added resellers and service providers interested in reselling Aruba networking hardware and software can learn the benefits of becoming an Aruba Networks partner with this standardized checklist. Compare Aruba's reseller partner program with other vendors' offering similar products.